**** they might as well put up the pride belt too, it only makes sense to have both do their first title defenses

the only thing i can think why is that dana is probably just gonna end pride for good. the grand prix was cancelled and any every future event is yet to be announced. maybe its danas way of telling current pride title holders that they can just place them in their trophy rooms for good

This is the way it should be. Thgere is a difference in fighting in a cage and fighting in a ring. Being that this fight is taking place in the cage and under UFC rules, the only title up for grabs should be the UFC title.

**** they might as well put up the pride belt too, it only makes sense to have both do their first title defenses

the only thing i can think why is that dana is probably just gonna end pride for good. the grand prix was cancelled and any every future event is yet to be announced. maybe its danas way of telling current pride title holders that they can just place them in their trophy rooms for good

I disagree. I think this actually indicates that he DOESN'T want to fold PRIDE, at least not yet. Think about it, if both belts were on the line, in the octagon, regardless of who won the match there would then essentially only be one belt, because someone would win both and then go on to defend both simultaneously. Unifying the belts is essentially destroying one of them, because I guarantee you if they were unified, the belt would still say "UFC" on it. The fact that the PRIDE title is NOT on the line actually means that PRIDE still exists as a separate entity, and that if UFC fighters want to win a PRIDE belt, they'll have to do it in PRIDE the same way that PRIDE fighters are coming to the UFC to win the UFC belt.

I think this is the best possible move they could make, and it's what I said to begin with. This leaves the potential for PRIDE to continue running. It can be one organization, with the majority of fighters fighting in both, they will have the combined benefit of american PPV sales and Japanese live gate on top of the ability to continue the "superfight" theme despite really being one entity. I hope if they do it this way that they maintain the entire presentation aspect that came along with the PRIDE experience when they do events in Japan. Then all fans can have the best of both worlds.

Obviously if it stayed active it would still be in Japan, that would be the entire point of keeping it active to begin with, to keep the revenues from the live gates japanese events bring in, and obviously if it stayed active it would switch to the unified rule system. Everything you're saying is a non-issue.... People don't want PRIDE to stay alive because it will have different rules if it does, clearly one company isn't going to run competing organizations with different sets of rules. The benefit in most fans' eyes is the nostalgia and production value. PRIDE is a different experience than the UFC.